By Dana Mattioli and Cara Lombardo
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. named Starbucks Corp. operating
chief Rosalind Brewer as its next chief executive, setting her up
to be the only Black woman leading a Fortune 500 company today.
Ms. Brewer will replace Stefano Pessina, who said in July that
he would step down as CEO once the drugstore company found a new
leader. Mr. Pessina, one of Walgreens' biggest individual
investors, will stay on the company's board and serve as executive
chairman.
Shares of Walgreens, which has a market value of around $43
billion, rose 8% after hours after The Wall Street Journal first
reported on the move.
Starbucks said Tuesday that Ms. Brewer, its chief operating
officer and group president, was leaving both the company and board
of Starbucks at the end of February for a new role at another
public company. Before joining the coffeehouse chain, Ms. Brewer
was CEO of Walmart Inc.'s Sam's Club division for five years.
The 58-year-old executive, who goes by "Roz," will join
Walgreens and its board on March 15. She is also resigning from the
board of Amazon.com Inc. on Feb. 16.
The retail veteran joined Starbucks and its board in 2017. She
helped shift Starbucks toward a focus on to-go operations during
the pandemic and has worked to diversify the company's leadership.
Starbucks last fall said it would tie executive compensation to
increasing minority representation in its workforce, and mandated
antibias training for company leaders.
In 2019, Ms. Brewer joined the board of Amazon amid pressure on
the company to add more diversity to its board. Amazon has been
increasingly expanding into the health-care space, becoming more of
a competitor to companies such as Walgreens and CVS. In 2018,
Amazon bought online pharmacy PillPack for $1 billion.
Mr. Pessina said Ms. Brewer's retail background, especially in
growing Starbucks' digital presence, makes her well-suited for the
top job at Walgreens.
"We needed someone with an experience in retail and an
experience in pharmacy and, more importantly, experience in
digital," Mr. Pessina said in an interview. "She's very thoughtful
and very personable, she's reasonable and she has all the qualities
that are important for a chief executive."
Walgreens, the largest U.S. drugstore chain, has been struggling
to turn itself around, an effort complicated by the coronavirus
pandemic. Mr. Pessina, an Italian billionaire, took over five years
ago following the merger of Walgreens and European pharmacy chain
Alliance Boots.
Where rival CVS Health Corp. has built itself into a health-care
behemoth through acquisitions of pharmacy benefit manager Caremark
in 2006 and insurer Aetna Inc., Walgreens shifted away from all-out
acquisitions after unsuccessful attempts to buy insurer Humana Inc.
and pharmacy rival Rite Aid Corp.
Walgreens recently announced plans to sell much of its wholesale
pharmacy business in Europe, narrowing its focus on its U.S.
namesake chain and the Boots pharmacy chain in the U.K.
Reduced store traffic amid the coronavirus pandemic is
exacerbating Walgreens' retail struggles, and the company's efforts
to transform itself into a provider of health-care services have
yet to take hold. The company also is expected to play a central
role administering the Covid-19 vaccine to the American public.
Along with CVS, Walgreens worked with the federal government to
administer doses at the nation's long-term-care facilities.
In its latest quarter, the pharmacy chain's profit fell 25% even
as overall revenue rose and the company worked to cut costs. Retail
pharmacy sales increased 1.6% in the U.S., well below expectations,
and executives said prescription volumes were weaker than
planned.
Last year, Walgreens was among the worst-performing members of
the Dow Jones Industrial Average, with its shares falling 29.4%.
The index gained 7.3% in 2020.
The first African-American and first woman to lead a Walmart
business unit, Ms. Brewer joined the retail giant in 2006 after two
decades at Kimberly-Clark Corp., where she started as a chemist.
She is a graduate of Spelman College, where she chairs the board of
trustees. She previously served on the boards of Lockheed Martin
Corp. and Molson Coors Beverage Co.
"Roz has a fabulous combination of traits. She is a scientist by
training, she is deeply operational and she has a broad worldview.
That combination just makes her a dynamo," said Jamie Gorelick, a
fellow Amazon board member who has worked alongside Ms. Brewer for
nearly two years.
There are four Black CEOs in the Fortune 500: Kenneth Frazier of
pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., Marvin Ellison of hardware
store chain Lowe's Cos., Roger Ferguson Jr. of TIAA, a financial
services firm, and René Jones, who runs M&T Bank Corp. in New
York.
The number of women running Fortune 500 companies hit an
all-time high last year at 37 and more have since been
appointed.
Sharon Terlep and Heather Haddon contributed ti this
article.
Write to Dana Mattioli at dana.mattioli@wsj.com and Cara
Lombardo at cara.lombardo@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 26, 2021 20:42 ET (01:42 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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